GET WIRED
Hot or Not?
Some pickups are “hotter” than others. But
what does this mean? Does it mean that
these pickups will push an amplifier harder,
resulting in more gain and volume? Yes.
Does it mean that these pickups will impart
a warmer, fuller tone? Generally, yes. But
why is this? And how do you make a pickup hotter? And how does DC resistance
correlate to “hotness” or output?
Let’s consider again how a pickup “picks
up” the string vibration and how this is
turned into something musical.
Pickups use coils of wire and magnets as
their core components. The ferrous guitar
strings pass through the magnetic field that
exists above the pickup, and as the strings
vibrate, they move the magnetic field,
while the coil(s) remains stationary. This
movement of the magnetic field relative to
the stationary coil induces voltage, which is
sent to the amp.
If you were to make a device wherein
the mobility of the two components was
reversed—that is, where the coil moved
relative to a stationary magnetic field—
then this device would also induce voltage
(and would be called a generator).
The voltage that’s generated by a pickup
is measured in millivolts, and you can
increase its strength in several ways:
1. Increase the strength of the
magnetic field
2. Increase the size of the coil by adding
more wire wraps to it
3. Increase the force with which the string
is excited (pluck it harder)
4. Increase the content of magnetic
material in the strings
5. Increase the mass of the strings
If you think of the magnetic field as being
able to “grab onto” the strings, then you
can see that it would hold on more tightly
to a string with a higher iron content, for
instance, than it would to a string with a
lower iron content. So heavier strings of
a given brand, having more iron content
(more steel mass) than a lighter set of the
same brand of strings, would move the
magnetic field to a greater degree when a
string is plucked, and would generate more
voltage in the process. This is one reason
GEORGE ELLISON
for the difference in tone between heavier
strings and lighter strings.
Gibson Humbucker
Gibson P- 90
Fender Stratocaster
Fender Telecaster Neck
Fender Telecaster Bridge
The Pickups That
Changed The World
Similarly, if we increase the strength of the
pickup’s magnetic field, all other things
remaining equal, we’ll get a higher voltage.
And if we add more turns of magnet wire
onto the coil, we’ll get a higher voltage. In
either case, this higher input voltage will
drive the amplifier harder, resulting in more
gain, and more volume.
There is also a tonal change. As the voltage increases—and again, all other things
remaining equal—we’ll see more mids and
less highs, at least up to a point.
Fender and Gibson are really the two makers who defined what now constitutes 90
percent or more of the pickup market. In
the early days of the electric guitar, many
designs were tried, as is usually the case
with new technologies. But Fender and
Gibson came up with enduring form factors:
the PAF humbucker, the P- 90, the Strat pickup, and the Tele pickup. The majority of guitars currently in production use one or more
of these, and the overwhelming majority of
replacement pickups being produced derive
their form factor and basic architecture from
these five designs.
There have been many other influential
designs, of course, such as the Gretsch
Filter Tron (and its DeArmond predecessors), as well as other pickups from Fender
and Gibson, such as the Jaguar and
Jazzmaster pickups. And of course there
are very popular bass pickup designs, such
as Fender’s Precision Bass and Jazz Bass
pickups, as well as various soapbar designs.
But when we exclude bass guitars from the
discussion, the five designs listed above
really define the market.
But because these five pickups all have
a different form factor and construction
details, they vary considerably. The statement “all other things remaining equal”
certainly doesn’t apply here.
So, let’s look at each in detail. We’ll start
next month!
George Ellison
Founder, Acme Guitar Works
acmeguitarworks.com
george@acmeguitarworks.com
772-770-1919
